Forest and Bird report ‘misleading’

Waikato Regional Council is
disappointed with a Forest and Bird report regarding
compliance monitoring and enforcement in the dairy sector in
the 2016/17 dairy season.

The report released today
contains information the council believes is outdated,
inaccurate and misleading for the state of compliance and
enforcement in the Waikato region two years ago.

Council
staff are concerned that Forest and Bird has not sought to
check data and information they have received from various
sources regarding the Waikato region. “It is apparent
there has been no peer review of the report from anybody
experienced in compliance, monitoring and enforcement of the
Resource Management Act,” said resource use director, Dr
Chris McLay.

Waikato staff acknowledge that prosecution
data given to Forest and Bird for the report was incorrect
in stating no prosecutions had occurred over that season. In
fact, council took more than 180 enforcement actions for
breaches of the RMA on dairy farms in 2016/17, including
four prosecutions – the third highest number in the
country that year.

“While no-one likes to be rated
poorly, I am confident we are doing a good job. The Waikato
farming sector is well aware that when we find
non-compliance, we hold people to account. Only in the past
week a Waikato farming company was convicted and fined
$41,000 for environmental breaches. That is a clear message
in anyone’s books,” said Dr McLay.

“The report is
accurate in identifying that we have the largest number of
dairy farms in the country. We have a very proactive team
who monitor these farms and another team who responds to
complaints from members of the public about poor farming
practice. In an ideal world we would inspect every farm
every year, however that would be a huge burden on
ratepayers of the Waikato.”

The report was critical of
the council using announced visits two years ago. However,
announced visits enabled staff to meet one-on-one with
farmers to discuss their farm systems and other on farm
matters, including minor earthworks, the Healthy Rivers/Wai
Ora plan change and water consents.

“We are at a place
now where a significant portion of the farming population
have or are attempting to improve their systems, and working
with them one-on-one has helped,” Dr McLay said.

In June
this year, the council announced it was adopting a more
risk-based monitoring programme, combining one-on-one site
visits of high risk farms with aerial inspections which
could include using satellite imagery, drones, fixed wing
aircraft or helicopters.

“There are some farmers who
will not comply without us using other tools at our
discretion,” said farming services manager, Nicole
Botherway.

“Our new way of monitoring has only been in
place for just over a month, and it is targeting high risk
farms. That means it’s not surprising we’re picking up
higher levels of non-compliance than we were previously, but
it’s too soon to tell if this trend will continue,” Ms
Botherway said.

The Forest and Bird report does not
consider changes the council has made since the 2016/17
dairy season, making their findings and recommendations
outdated, the council said.

The council suggests the
public consider the deficiencies of the report relating to
the Waikato region and wider regional sector and has
suggested Forest and Bird reconsider the methodology in
their review of compliance, monitoring and
enforcement.Below are the enforcement actions that have
been taken by Waikato Regional Council over the last three
years, specific to breaches of the RMA on dairy
farms.

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